If you read “Everything Will Be Okay” and felt inspired and reassured, read “Purple State.”
Over the years, Ive been driven to write my mentoring books because I wanted all of my best advice to be in one place. As I set out to draft my new novel, “Purple State,” I wanted to help my characters â three women: Dot, Mary and Harper â live out those lessons in the story. They confront and address their quarter-life crises in a way that has the potential to set them up for career success and personal fulfillment.
In my nonfiction books, I talked about living with principles that make decision-making easier. And now in “Purple State,” I show what it costs to live by those principles â to have them tested, and to live with the consequences of your decisions.
Thats how Ive bridged the two books.
“” made it plain that life isnt easy. It basically said, yes, theres uncertainty in life, and you can manage that by being more resilient and trusting yourself â sticking to your values even when the path ahead isnt clear. Especially then! It was a guidebook for navigating chaos with grace.
And thats where I began with “Purple State.” The story takes place over a single year. Dot, Mary and Harper are each at a . They have great ambition, but theyre being bruised by experience. Theyre trying to reconcile what they thought they would be doing at this point in their lives with the lives that theyre actually living.
When given a chance to shake things up, Dot leaves behind the certainty of for a relationship and a career change she cant fully control. Mary, grounded and pragmatic, must confront the limits of playing it safe. Harper, sharp but lacking confidence, discovers that independence without vulnerability can become its own kind of isolation.
Does that sound like you â or someone you know and love? Thats because I didnt pull their problems out of thin air. These are the challenges I see young people dealing with all the time. And because I dealt with them myself. If theres one thing you learn from both books, its that you arent alone in feeling this way. That you can find a way to navigate the daily back-and-forth between fear and faith, control and surrender, and ambition and connection.
Another truism of both books is that character matters more than circumstance. Who are you when no one is looking? “Purple State” takes that idea and tests it as the three friends figure out how to live for a year away from Manhattan while theyre in Wisconsin.
Theyre deeply involved in a , and they all end up testing the limits of what is too confining, too comfortable and too far outside their plans. Along the way, they learn that love requires risk â just like their careers. And perhaps the safe choice isnt the right one.
DANA PERINOS MUST-READ BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The answer unfolds not in sweeping declarations, but in small, consequential decisions â the kind that shape a life more than any single dramatic moment ever could.
And at the center of it all is a simple but profound conclusion: â if you let it.
“Everything Will Be Okay” teaches the power of staying grounded, showing up for your friends and protecting your integrity. Dot, Mary and Harper learn the same lessons.
In a cultural moment that often rewards cynicism and division, “Purple State” offers something both refreshing and necessary: the idea that we are not as far apart as we think, and that the most important decisions we make are not political, but personal. Who do we trust? Who do we stand by? Who do we choose to love?
The setting â , a true “purple state” â is as symbolic
